FeldFans- Al Feldstein Love 1 1

[MrBedrock]

[MrBedrock]

On 11/11/2017 at 9:08 AM, eccomic said:

I had the honour of meeting Al Feldstein back in 2008 at the Motor City Comicon and we spent a lot of time together and he was kind enough to sign virtually every cover he illustrated from the New Trend. A kind man. He will be missed. I am including some correspondence Al and I had afterwards, as well as the covers Al signed from my collection below for the enjoyment of my fellow Feldstein fans. 

This post has a lot of information in it!

[Robot Man]

22 hours ago, BuscemasAvengers said:

Going to resurrect this thread from a few years back, started by Rick in honor of the great Al Feldstein.  

The reason I was looking for some sort of Feldstein thread is that I came across an oddity in a book I bought off of Cheetah earlier today (Jumbo Comics 56).  

Essentially, I was wondering if you knew what Feldstein's earliest work may have been at the Iger Studios, and whether Jumbo 56 might be it ...

GCD notates that he may have done some backgrounds/inks (?) in one of the stories in issue 56 ... just wondering if there is anything else he may have done earlier ... The 56 seems to have a secret message encoded in some Oriental alphabetic characters, and the speculation is that it may have been done by Feldstein (at age 17??!!) because the characters spell out "Claire Szep", whom Feldstein would marry the following year, and stay married to, until their divorce 23 years later ... if true, VERY COOL!!! I wonder what the other Oriental alphabetic characters spell out in that story? The background is not credited, so that begs the question: what other backgrounds did he do prior to issue 56 that were also uncredited?

https://www.comics.org/issue/3177/?

https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/index.php?did=17480&page=22

http://alphabettenthletter.blogspot.com/2012/11/lettering-claire-szep-hidden-in-plain.html

We all love to post our cool Feldstein stuff but anybody have answer to this question? About all I can find out is from Al's bio in the Junior/Sunny book by Grant Geissman. Sounds like he started out inking spots on Sheena's outfit at an early age. But as to when and what his first published solo work is still a mystery to me. Who would have thought to translate these Asian building markings and finding this out? Also, to find Al's mother in law's signature on the back cover of MAD #70 is mind blowing!

[BuscemasAvengers]

19 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

We all love to post our cool Feldstein stuff but anybody have answer to this question? About all I can find out is from Al's bio in the Junior/Sunny book by Grant Geissman. Sounds like he started out inking spots on Sheena's outfit at an early age. But as to when and what his first published solo work is still a mystery to me. Who would have thought to translate these Asian building markings and finding this out? Also, to find Al's mother in law's signature on the back cover of MAD #70 is mind blowing!

Unless someone alive has some very precise information, we may never find out ... I wonder what other 'secrets' there may be in the Chinese characters? Are they made up, or do they reveal anything else? Can anyone assist?

[sacentaur]

9 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

This post has a lot of information in it!

tl;dr

[RedFury]

11 hours ago, Robot Man said:

We all love to post our cool Feldstein stuff but anybody have answer to this question? About all I can find out is from Al's bio in the Junior/Sunny book by Grant Geissman. Sounds like he started out inking spots on Sheena's outfit at an early age. But as to when and what his first published solo work is still a mystery to me. Who would have thought to translate these Asian building markings and finding this out? Also, to find Al's mother in law's signature on the back cover of MAD #70 is mind blowing!

I have nothing new to add regarding the question, but it was fascinating to learn about the hidden name and the sampler.  Very cool stuff!

[RedFury]

At the 2007 Baltimore Comic Con, I was asked if I'd like to be Al's handler (assisting him with anything he needed).  Of course I jumped at the chance.  I took my sketchbook with me in the hopes he would do one, but he wasn't sketching at the show, just signing and selling prints and paintings.  Still, the sketchbook was a good conversation starter because I had some Williamson and Evans sketches in it.  I spent the entire day with him at the show, and then my wife and I had dinner with him.  She's not really into comics, but even she loved hearing his stories about the old days at EC and Mad. 

The next day near the end of the show he said "You still have your sketchbook with you?"  "Yeah..."  "You like the horror or the sci-fi better?"  "Sci-fi..."  "OK, give it here."  

Thanks Al.

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, RedFury said:

At the 2007 Baltimore Comic Con, I was asked if I'd like to be Al's handler (assisting him with anything he needed).  Of course I jumped at the chance.  I took my sketchbook with me in the hopes he would do one, but he wasn't sketching at the show, just signing and selling prints and paintings.  Still, the sketchbook was a good conversation starter because I had some Williamson and Evans sketches in it.  I spent the entire day with him at the show, and then my wife and I had dinner with him.  She's not really into comics, but even she loved hearing his stories about the old days at EC and Mad. 

The next day near the end of the show he said "You still have your sketchbook with you?"  "Yeah..."  "You like the horror or the sci-fi better?"  "Sci-fi..."  "OK, give it here."  

Thanks Al.

That’s off the hook cool Todd. I would probably said neither “How about a Junior?”. I met Al several times but never asked for a sketch. Probably should have. He was one heck of a cool guy!

[Ricksneatstuff]

3 hours ago, RedFury said:

At the 2007 Baltimore Comic Con, I was asked if I'd like to be Al's handler (assisting him with anything he needed).  Of course I jumped at the chance.  I took my sketchbook with me in the hopes he would do one, but he wasn't sketching at the show, just signing and selling prints and paintings.  Still, the sketchbook was a good conversation starter because I had some Williamson and Evans sketches in it.  I spent the entire day with him at the show, and then my wife and I had dinner with him.  She's not really into comics, but even she loved hearing his stories about the old days at EC and Mad. 

The next day near the end of the show he said "You still have your sketchbook with you?"  "Yeah..."  "You like the horror or the sci-fi better?"  "Sci-fi..."  "OK, give it here."  

Thanks Al.

Wow!! There are only a few times I’ve read a post and been jealous.  This is one of them.  

[Ricksneatstuff]

This seems like the right place to show off this run.  

 

[Ricksneatstuff]

[IngelsFan]

My two latest acquisitions in my quest for all of Al’s horror covers: